Dr. George Peoples named the recipient of BioMed SA's 2016 Award for Innovation in Healthcare and Bioscience. COURTESY OF BIOMED SA

W. Scott Bailey, San Antonio Business Journal

BioMed SA has selected Dr. George E. Peoples as the recipient of its 2016 Award for Innovation in Healthcare and Bioscience.

The wartime trauma surgeon and cancer immunotherapy pioneer is expected to accept the honor at BioMed SA's annual award dinner on Sept. 15, according to BioMed SA President Ann Stevens.

Peoples was selected for the award in part because his spirit of innovation, Stevens said. He has led the charge to advance clinical discoveries in cancer immunotherapy, including a vaccine for breast cancer. He has also instituted protocols in military medicine that have increased soldier survival on the battlefield and developed business initiatives that support the San Antonio life sciences industry.

While still in the Army, Peoples founded the Cancer Vaccine Development Program and then directed that initiative for 15 years, focusing on the discovery, development and clinical testing of cancer vaccines. Four of these vaccines have been licensed for commercial development, including NeuVax, the only breast cancer vaccine currently in an FDA approval trial.

The CVDP is being reconstituted under a San Antonio-based nonprofit organization called the Metis Foundation, which will carry forward the work started by Peoples.

Peoples recently retired as a colonel after 30 years of active-duty service as a surgeon and research scientist in the U.S. Army. He had been stationed at the San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC) as chief of surgical oncology from 2006 to 2014 and made the decision to stay in the Alamo City after retirement.Peoples is past chair of the cancer program at SAMMC and was previously deputy director of the United States Military Cancer Institute.

Since retiring from active duty, Peoples has also created Cancer Insight LLC, a boutique clinical research and development organization based in San Antonio. Cancer Insight is currently conducting multiple Phase I and II clinical trials.

Prior to his arrival at SAMMC in 2006, Peoples served as chief of surgical oncology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

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